Reba is going to receive the inaugural Nash Icon Award at the American Country Countdown Awards on December 15. During the show, Miranda Lambert and Kelly Clarkson will perform some of Reba’s biggest hits before Kix Brooks presents her with the award. Ronnie Dunn posted on Facebook that he’s signed a “Record deal with Big […]

Stream new records from Marty Stuart, Gary Clark, Jr., and Luke Winslow-King. Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives were recently on WXPN’s World Café. You can listen to their set here. MusicTimes.com posted a lengthy feature on Mac Wiseman. Go download some Dom Flemons and Jim White vs. The Packaway Handle Band music on NoiseTrade. Craig […]

Ketch Secor put together a list of eight essential Americana albums released in the last 15 years; his selections include The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Genuine Negro Jig and Iris DeMent’s Sing the Delta. Garth Brooks is holding a press conference (which you can stream here) at noon today. The 615 reports that sources say Brooks […]

Dolly Parton has denied accusations that she lip-synched at Glastonbury, saying “My boobs are fake, my hair’s fake but what is real is my voice and my heart.” Let’s watch Parton do “Yakety Sax” for a bunch of drug-addled festivalgoers again. Mac Wiseman’s got a new project in the works. He also has a new […]

A third person died from injuries sustained in last week’s SXSW tragedy. Radney Foster will release Everything I Should Have Said on his own Devil’s River label May 13. (via press release) Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison announced a bunch of tour dates; according to a post on Willis’ Facebook page, the duo is gearing […]

Ronnie Gant passed away on Saturday at the age of 69. The music publisher worked for Acuff-Rose for more than 20 years and pitched “Elvira” to The Oak Ridge Boys. Singer-songwriter Sarah Elizabeth Campbell passed away December 26 after a battle with liver cancer. She was 60 years old. Billy Block was diagnosed with Stage […]

The Earl Scruggs Center’s grand opening is scheduled for January 11. You might want to check it out if you’re near Shelby, NC. To All the Girls, which sold 43,000 units in its first week, is Willie Nelson’s 46th Top 10 Country Album. (Dolly Parton is in second place, with 41 Top 10 Country Albums.) […]

Pokey LaFarge might have been born 70 years too late. The 29-year old singer-songwriter dresses like he wandered out of a speakeasy. But it’s not just his wardrobe that’s influenced by Prohibition Era America; his infectious sound blends jazz, blues, country and ragtime. For his first full-length album on Jack White’s Third Man Records, LaFarge […]

That the Darius Rucker version of “Wagon Wheel” reached Number One on country radio this month is something that should not go unexplored on the roots watch. How the song came to be there can tell us as much, and maybe more, about the practical interaction of roots music and pop, of blues and country, […]

Gordon Stoker of The Jordanaires passed away yesterday at the age of 88. From MusicRow.com: The Jordanaires’ harmonies can be heard on some of the most famous recordings from the 1960s and early ‘70s, particularly the Elvis Presley classics “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” and “It’s Now or Never.” Stoker had worked with […]